News

Senate GOP, Dem leaders say it’s time for immigration deal

2/14/2018 9:37:08 PM

WASHINGTON—The Senate’s two top leaders put on a show of comradery Monday as their chamber launched its immigration debate, but also laid down markers underscoring how hard it will be to reach a deal that can move through Congress.
“We really do get along, despite what you read in the press,” said Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., at a previously scheduled appearance alongside his counterpart, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., at the University of Louisville.
There was even ribbing when Schumer presented McConnell with a bottle of bourbon...

By Ashraf Khalil
WASHINGTON—When Barack Obama speaks, people listen. At least they did when he was in the White House. But that kind of authority didn’t hold much sway when it came time for his presidential portrait.
At a ceremony Monday to unveil portraits of him and former first lady Michelle Obama, the former president said artist Kehinde Wiley cheerfully ignored almost all of his suggestions.
“He listened very thoughtfully to what I had to say before doing exactly what he always intended to do,” he said. “I tried to negotiate less gray...

By Andrew Taylor and Martin Crutsinger
WASHINGTON—President Donald Trump’s own budget director says if he were still a member of Congress he probably wouldn’t vote for the very budget plan he hawked Tuesday before the Senate Budget Committee.
Office of Management and Budget Director Mick Mulvaney told the panel that he “probably would have found enough shortcomings in this to vote against it.”
But Mulvaney, a deficit hawk during three terms as a tea party congressman from South Carolina, said his job now is to represent the president, who promises to...

By Brian Melley
LOS ANGELES—A defense lawyer for Marion “Suge” Knight was back on the rap mogul's murder case last Thursday, a week after his arrest on suspicion of being an accessory after murder.
Knight waived his right to having a lawyer free of potential conflicts of interest in order for Thaddeus Culpepper to rejoin a legal team that has changed frequently over the past three years in the murder case.
Knight, 52, the co-founder of Death Row Records has pleaded not guilty in Los Angeles Superior Court to charges of murder and attempted murder after he ran...

COMPTON—A motorist and her passenger were injured and taken to a hospital, rescued after she drove her Ford Mustang deep into the Shoe City store at a busy crossroads in Compton.
The crash was at 5:54 p.m. Saturday at a Shoe City on Long Beach Boulevard and Rosecrans Avenue. said Lt. Craig Walker of the sheriff's Compton station.
No other injuries were reported and no arrests were made in connection with the crash, Walker said.
Officials from Compton's Building and Safety Department were called out to the scene, but the Compton fire department dispatcher said she did...

By Matthew Barakat
It's an annual rite in Fairfax County, which has one of the wealthiest, best-educated populations in America: Hundreds of second-graders troop off to private psychologists for IQ tests to prove they're worthy of advanced academic programs in the public schools.
The competition is fierce. Acceptance, some parents believe, can be the key to getting into prestigious Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology, a magnet school that routinely sends graduates to the most competitive colleges.
“I guess I never made the cut,” said...

By Ellen Knickmeyer and Rich Pedroncelli
California's brief escape from severe drought ended last Thursday after scientists declared more than 40 percent of the state in moderate drought and water officials confirmed lower-than-normal snowpack in the Sierra Nevada. Los Angeles, Ventura and Santa Barbara counties, which hold nearly a quarter of the state's population, were rated in severe drought.
During a week of rainless skies and some record-high temperatures in Southern California, water officials also trekked into the Sierra Nevada last Thursday and manually...

LOS ANGELES—Out of 1,361 cities in 38 countries, Los Angeles has the worst gridlock for the sixth year in a row, according to INRIX, a company that specializes in car services and transportation analytics.
Drivers in and around Los Angeles spent 102 hours battling traffic congestion during peak hours in 2017, states INRIX's 11th annual report. In contrast, New York City motorists spent 91 hours battling peak hour gridlock.
New York was Number 3 on the INRIX list. Number 2 was Moscow.
But Los Angeles had lower peak period tie-ups than San Francisco, Seattle, Boston and...

LOS ANGELES—The streak of increases in the average price of a gallon of self-serve regular gasoline in Los Angeles County was extended Tuesday to 19 days with an increase of one-tenth of a cent to $3.455, its highest amount since Sept. 9, 2015.
The average price has increased 20.8 cents during the streak, including a half-cent on Monday, according to figures from the AAA and Oil Price Information Service. It is 3.6 cents more than one week ago, 23.9 cents higher than one month ago and 54.9 cents greater than one year ago.
The average price has risen 30.5 cents since the start of...

By Sean Pyles
Record-level credit card debt and fluctuating incomes create financial challenges for many American households, especially those with lower incomes. The effects may be felt especially keenly in Black households, where historic and systemic racial discrimination has led to greater disparities in wealth and debt.
But there are moves that families facing such hardships can make to better their finances, including improving their credit profile and seeking alternatives to risky products such as payday loans.
DEEPLY ROOTED DISPARITIES IN DEBT AND...